Son of Fire
by Jack Cross
Summary: Follow Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, and a new Son of Hephaestus in their quest to stop The Second Titan War. New romances will be kindled, and nothing will be the same. Rating may go up later.
1. Chapter 1

**I own nothing. Most of this belongs to Rick Riordan. Please review and let me know what you think. **

**A/N: So, as you have noticed this series will be set from The Titan's Curse onward. I could have done the usual and started this from The Lightning Thief but I went with this. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it. **

Hephaestus. God of forges, fire, and volcanoes. To most, this is just another ancient myth. But to Jack Green, the god of the forges is something that strikes much closer to home. Jack first appeared at the age of nine to Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Luke Castellan, and Grover Underwood during their flight to Half Blood Hill. No one knew where he came from as he never spoke about it. The nine year old made it known about his father when he used fire to fight off the army of hell hounds climbing the hill, refusing to leave Thalia's side. Since the battle, he had spent much of his life living at Camp Half Blood.

In all the years that had passed since his arrival, Jack did his best to stay out of the camp's general eye. Although this proved to be rather challenging. Jack was one of the only campers to use a firearm. His first year in camp he had created an 1887 lever action shotgun using wood and celestial bronze. Among other things, he dominated the training ground with his battle skills. Only Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, had bested him. Percy, a first year camper, had managed to secure Jack's respect before anyone else.

As the year came to a close, Jack befriended Percy. Although this didn't matter much during the chariot races as the two had fought rather hard in an effort to win. In the end, Jack admitted that Percy and Annabeth had won the race fair and square. Later, after Thalia's revival by the Golden Fleece, Jack agreed to accompany Percy to New York, reentering the world of mortals for the first time in several years. Now, the four of them are making their way north with Percy's mom in order to answer a distress call.

_Jack_

Snow has always been both an opportunity and an annoyance to me. When winter comes it means I get to test out some new snow devices me and my brother Charles Beckendorf built. But it also means that the forges have to be stoked and checked even more so then usual, which means more work. And then of course there are moments like now, when snow has the possibility of killing you.

The highway was a gray white mixture with the amount of snow that was falling. I sat in the front passenger seat of the car while Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia sat in the back with Percy's mom driving. Ms. Jackson was blathering on about something Percy had done when he was a little. Judging by his appearance in the rear view mirror, he found it embarrassing. I had stopped listening and was instead trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with the car. For the fifth time, I deduced that it needed an oil change before I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window.

In the mirror, I caught Thalia looking at me before she looked away, out into the storm. When she had been turned into a tree, Thalia was twelve, three years older then me at the time. Now she was roughly fifteen, a year younger then me. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to have her back. But something about her had changed to me. She looked...different somehow.

"Jack why didn't you shave before we left?" Ms. Jackson asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. I had the forming of a mustache and a small beard on my chin, something I had started doing both for the cold and to annoy people who thought I looked better clean shaven.

"Cause it's cold?" I replied, hoping to try and turn her attention back to Percy.

"She has a point, Jack, this is a military school we're going to after all," Annabeth said from the back seat. I rolled my eyes before looking back out the window, choosing to save some of the retorts I had come up with for later. The car came to a stop in front of what appeared to be the castle from a Frankenstein movie. It was impossible to miss in the snow as it was lit up like a Christmas tree.

We had sat still for less then thirty seconds before I bounded out of the car, eager to stretch my legs after the long car ride to Maine from New York. I loved Ms. Jackson like a second mother, but her choice in vehicles simply did not suit a guy with my kind of frame.

_Percy _

"Thanks for the ride Ms. Jackson," Jack said as he leaned against the car door before closing it. He was big, like most children of Hephaestus, and I guess being folded up into the car wasn't helping him much. He wore a brown leather aviator's jacket with blue jeans and a black cylinder strapped around his back. I knew that this was just the Mist fooling my eyes, as the cylinder was in fact Jack's weapon of choice; his shotgun. This wasn't his only weapon of course, but it was the one he preferred.

After we climbed out of the car and wished Mom luck on her return trip, we turned and faced the school. None of us spoke as we looked up at it's size. After a moment, Jack blew into his his cupped hands, allowing flames to shoot out and causing the rest of us to jump back a bit in surprise.

"What?" he asked, the corner of his mouth cocked into a grin. Both Annabeth and Thalia rolled their eyes before they started for the front door.

"Is it really necessary to be breathing fire?" I asked as we began to follow them.

"I'm not breathing fire, and in case you haven't noticed its frickin' freezing out here," he said, pulling the jacket a little tighter around him. We managed to catch up with the other two before we continued the walk.

"Your mom is so cool, Percy," Thalia said.

"She's pretty ok," I admitted.

"Pretty ok? Dude she's one of the best cooks I've ever met. You should consider getting her a job at Camp," Jack said. I looked up at the dark towers of Westover Hall. Whatever was here that made Grover send a distress call wasn't good.

The massive oak wood doors opened for us, allowing us to enter the hall in a swirl of snow. The place was huge, and the amount of weapons hanging on the walls was overkill, even for a military school.

"Anyone else got a bad feeling about this? No?" Jack asked as we stepped into the hallway. Behind us, the doors groaned closed again.

"How 'bout now?" he asked. We stashed our bags behind a nearby pillar before we began to follow music down the hallway toward what appeared to be a gymnasium. Out of no where, a man and a woman marched out of the shadows and intercepted us.

"Well? What are you doing here?" the woman demanded.


	2. Chapter 2

**As always, please review and let me know what you think. **

**Hey guys, just thought I'd say happy All Hallows Eve. But enough with that, on to the new chapter. **

_Thalia _

The teachers had come out of no where with a proficiency that surprised us. Granted it was a military school, but still. Out of the pair, the man had two different colors of eyes. He was the one who made me more on edge.

"Well, what are you doing here?" the woman asked again. Beside me, Percy started with a response.

"Ha! Visitors are not allowed to the dance, you shall be ee-jected!" The man interrupted, his french accent sounding out of place. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack roll his eyes. After all these years, he was still a smart ass in almost any situation.

Thinking of no other alternative, I raised my and hand and snapped my fingers. A wind rushed through the hall and the finger snap sounded much louder then it should have been.

"Don't you remember us? It's Thalia, Annabeth, Percy, and Jack," I said. After a moment, the woman blinked and shook her head. The man gained somewhat of a puzzled look.

"Ms. Gottschalk do you know these children?" he asked. Gottschalk nodded.

"Yes I do, Doctor Thorn. I gave Mr. Green a warning for not shaving earlier this evening."

"I'll have it done by 06:00 tomorrow maim," Jack said, surprising me with how well he took to the act. With that, the two vanished back into the shadows and allowed us to continue on to the dance. Chiron had taught me to manipulate the Mist a long time ago. I think Percy expressed some jealously over that. But I wasn't to worried about it. Chiron would teach him when he felt that Percy was ready.

The school's gymnasium was packed full of people. I was expecting that this dance would be extremely formal since it was a military school. But this was like almost every other school dance that I had been to. The students were wearing normal clothing, modern music played in the background, and across the way I saw a few students spiking the punch with some sort of alcohol.

From the tide of bodies came Grover. He was wearing what I guess was the usual uniform of the school.

"Oh good, you guys made it," he said, sounding relived.

"You bet we did man, what's going on?" Percy asked, fist bumping his friend.

"I found two demigods."

"Two?!" Jack asked in disbelief. One demigod was rare, but two was just plain unheard of.

"Yeah, and that's not all. The monster that's here, he's unlike anything any of us has ever faced." Annabeth stepped forward and placed her hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him down.

"Grover, who is the monster?"

"You've already met him. It's Dr. Thorn." I heard Jack sigh in frustration.

"Great, a french demigod eater," he muttered.

"Ok, we'll deal with him later. Right now we need to get those two out of here before he attacks. But we need to act natural and not get him interested in us," I said. The others nodded in agreement before I grabbed Jack by the wrist and led him out to the dance floor. I don't know why I choose him, I could have easily grabbed Grover, but this felt right somehow.

"You are aware that I don't know how to dance right?" he asked. We came to a halt and a turned to face him. For the first time in a long time I got an up close look at his face. He was handsome by any standard. No doubt he had gotten his brown eyes from his dad, and his body had been build up from time spent in the forges and training ground.

"I don't either. Besides it's Jessie McCartney, I'd rather be dancing to Green Day." Jack rolled his eyes again.

"Well, that's a step in the right direction," he said.

"You turd!" I said before I playfully slapped him, earning a chuckle from him. With that we began a slow, somewhat awkward dance.

_Jack _

I've come up against hydras, hellhounds, even gods themselves. But I've never, ever felt like I did when I was on that dance floor with Thalia. The feeling I had in my chest made it seem like I had run a marathon on a mountain side. My breath was catching in my throat, my hands felt clammy, and frankly I felt like my stomach had been teleported to Antarctica.

Thalia preferred a goth look. But that didn't put a damper on her appearance in the least. Her eyes held an electrified look, like lightning was ready to shoot out of them. Considering that her dad was Zeus, it was possible that she could do just that.

"What are you staring at?" she asked. I snapped out of my thoughts with a blink, realizing that I had been in somewhat of a trance.

"Hm? Nothing," I replied, glancing toward my boots. Thalia hooked two of her fingers under my chin and raised my head so I was looking in her eyes again. At this angle, it was like she was poking a finger gun into my jaw. Then she smiled. It was the kind of look that said she would either shoot electricity into my skull or kiss me. Honestly, I didn't know which would happen.

"Hey, have you guys seen Percy or the demigods?" Annabeth asked, appearing and startling both of us. Thalia and I separated instantly, our cheeks gaining some color. But that began to pass as her words sunk in and I noticed that Percy was missing.

"Let's fan out and find them."

_Percy _

Needless to say, this was definitely not one of my best days ever. A few minutes ago I had been in the warmth of the school, now I was freezing in the snowstorm while being held hostage by a monster who could shoot poisonous missiles with the other two half bloods. I don't know what kind of monster Dr. Thorn was, but he sure was up to date on technology. Even now, I could hear the sound of a helicopter approaching.

Behind us was a sheer cliff that dropped straight to the sea. Unless the others showed up that would be our only chance of survival.

"Jump, son of Poseidon. I could use the target practice," Thorn said as if he was reading my mind.

"What did he call you?" the girl asked, confused.

"Later." Thorn's lips curled into a hungry smile as he regarded the three of us. Then the monster's head exploded into the bright orange flare of fire. The suddenness of this caused the three of us to buckle and duck instinctively. As the flames cleared, Thorn thrashed about while gripping his face with cries of pain.

"The pitch is good ladies and gentlemen, the french man eater no longer has any facial hair!" Behind Thorn, Jack emerged from the grayness of the snow. Attached to his left arm was his shield, made of a gray metal alloy that I could never remember. Beside him came Thalia, who had Aegis deployed as well.

Blinded and enraged, Thorn turned and launched several missiles at them. For the first time I could see what he was using to fire the volleys. It was a large scorpion like tail that appeared to be made out of leather. As a single unit, Jack and Thalia crouched and braced against the impacts of the missiles, many of which simply shattered against the metal.

Reaching behind him like he was going for an arrow, I saw Jack remove the canister from his back. Even as it moved, I could see the canister morph into his own unique shotgun. Bring the weapon down to balance against the rim of his shield, he fired one handed. The deep boom of the weapon going off resonated in my chest and was enough to make my ears ring. Thorn pitched to the side, having been grazed by the shot.

"A manticore!" Annabeth said in amazement as she appeared next to me. Her Yankees cap was clutched firmly in her hand, as was her dagger. Thalia and Jack had locked their shields together and were advancing on Thorn, despite the continues stream of spikes. But at Annabeth's voice, he turned and launched a volley at us.

I reacted before I even thought, brushing my fingers against my wrist watch. Instantly my own shield sprung into view and blocked all of us from the volley. To this day, I still don't know how they did it. The force of the impacts was enough to put me on my knees, yet they were advancing against it like it was the wind. My brother Tyson had given this shield to me last summer as a gift, but the beautiful bronze was dented by the missiles.

Thorn began to change, growing larger until he had the body of a lion, the face of a man, and the tail of a scorpion. He reared up and prepared to send another volley at us. I was sure that my shield wouldn't withstand another attack, and I braced.

Thunder struck, and a brilliant flash blinded me. Thalia had used her spear to shoot lightning into Thorn's rear. He yelped and turned to face them again, but another blast of buckshot grazed his face. His multicolored eyes burned with pure rage as he looked like he had been punched.

"Eyes on us, frenchi!" Jack shouted. The manticore looked back and forth, trying to choose which group to attack.

"Use a different weapon, one that evens the field," he said, focusing on Jack. I was expecting a smart assed retort, or a shotgun blast to the face. But to my surprise, and horror, Jack returned the shotgun to his back and drew what appeared to be a switchblade. It looked like Thalia was trying to argue against it, but he would have none of it.

Breaking off from her, Jack walked forward with his shield down. It was a rookie mistake, but Jack wasn't anywhere close to being a rookie. Thorn cried out in glee and sent a barrage of missiles toward Jack, but he was ready for this, bringing the shield back before his body. As the missiles stuck the shield, a gladius appeared out to the side.

The sight of this weapon sent chills down my spine. It held a shining, lethal gleam to it with both sides of the blade being razor sharp. The hilt was made of ivory with the hand guard and counterweight being gold. Although it was a Roman sword, Jack used it regardless of his heritage. Stories had been spread around camp, saying that he had poured his anger, hate, and vengeance into the blade when he forged it. Personally, I've been up against it twice, and both times were some of the most spine chilling in my life. Only Back Bitter, Luke's sword, caused more fear.

"Percy now!" he shouted. Instantly I rushed forward and swung Riptide at Thorn's flank. But he turned at the last moment and sent me flying. But what Thorn didn't realize was how close Jack had gotten. With a single, lethal swing, he cut off Thorn's tail.

The manicore cried and yelled like a wounded animal. Through the noise, a single horn sounded from the woods. Thorn paid that no mind as he turned and leapt on top of Jack, determined to rip him to pieces. But Jack had gotten his shield up in time, and the metal disk separated him from certain death. The force of being tacked by a part lion monster sent Jack to the ground, his sword skidding from his hand and through the snow.

Claws scraped against metal as he struggled to reclaim his sword. But then, a single silver arrow appeared from Thorn's neck, knocking him from his perch on top of the demigod. He scanned the tree line, looking for where the arrow had come from. But this proved to be a mistake as Jack sent a bolt of fire into his face, blinding him in one eye. With the threat blinded, he scurried to his fallen blade and returned to a battle position. Thalia and I joined him, ready to both attack Thorn and defend Annabeth and the others.

"No! It is against the ancient laws of interference!" Thorn shouted, still clutching his burnt face as he circled, using his hearing and smell while he waited for his sight to return. On the tree line, several girls dressed in silver using bows appeared, all of them aiming at Thorn.

"You are a creature to be hunted, nothing more," one of them replied. Then, Thorn froze, looking right at us.

"I shall leave with at least one," he said before he charged us. They released their arrows, but it did little to slow Thorn down as he bounded over our heads, slammed into Annabeth, and plummeted over the cliff.

"NOO!" I slid toward the cliff after them, looking down into the black abyss below. Overhead, a helicopter appeared and shone it spot light on us. Along with the light, machine gun fire rung out as well. Everyone scattered as the bullets peppered the snow, everyone but one.

"Mortals, are not allowed to witness my hunt," she said before she trust out her hand and turned the helicopter into a flock of ravens.

_Jack _

Percy was an absolute, honest to gods mess. He wanted nothing more then to throw himself off of the cliff and go after Annabeth. I couldn't blame him. She was like a sister to me, an annoying know it all sister, but a sister none the less. But throwing myself off a cliff wasn't going to bring her back. I had a mission to attend to, and that's what I intended to do.

The Hunters of Artemis was a group I had encounter a very long time ago, during the days when I first met Thalia and Annabeth. At the time I held no grudge against them, but then again I was nine.

My shield returned to being a military watch that I wore on my left wrist, and my sword returned to it's switchblade form. Annabeth's taking was having a profound effect on me. This coupled with the hunters' hatred for males left me sitting at a distance, using puffs of fire to keep warm as I sat on a log.

The two kids we rescued, Bianca and Nico di Angelo, were a strange pair. Bianca was still trying to rap her head around what happened, but Nico was overjoyed and constantly talking about a card game of his, so I naturally steered clear.

It took almost an hour to get Percy back to speaking terms, and by then the Hunters had set up a camp. Thalia still looked like she was in a daze, but she looked like she wanted to be left alone. Percy had settled next to me on the log we huddled near a small fire that I had put together. Thankfully the snow had stopped, but it was still very cold. After a while, Grover reappeared from the bushes and took a seat next to us. It wasn't long before we attracted Nico's attention.

"So, Dr. Thorn said that you're the Son of Poseidon?" he asked. Percy nodded in response. He turned his attention from him to me.

"What about you? What's so special about you?" he asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I knew Percy was expecting me to roast this kid alive. But I played it cool and decided to have some fun with him. I took a deep breath through my nose. With a whoosh, the flames of the small fire grew bigger, and for a short moment it was like I giant blowtorch had been buried beneath the fire.

Nico scrambled backwards and so did Grover. Even Percy leaned back at the sudden rush of heat. After a few heartbeats, the flames returned to their normal size.

"Son of Hephaestus."

"God of the Forges right?" he asked, going for his card game again. I snapped my fingers, and instantly flames surrounded my hand. The feeling wasn't painful or overly hot, but rather comforting like a soft and warm blanket.

"Fire and Volcanoes too." Before he could ask another question, Grover had him going to look at the wolves the Hunters had brought with them. I reluctantly let the flames around my hand go out before I returned to my silence.

"You know that you are welcome around my fire, Jackson Green." I looked up and noticed the girl that had turned the chopper into birds. I knew who she was instantly, and she didn't look like she had changed in all the years since I had seen her.

"I don't think that your hunters would appreciate us much, Milady," I replied. The girl smiled slightly as she flicked her hand.

"Nonsense. They follow my orders. And on a night such as this, you are welcome next to my fire," she said.

"Who are you?" Percy asked, looking at her. The times where he could be totally clueless baffled me. Reaching over, I smacked him upside the back of the head.

"Show some respect, dumbass." The girl looked at Percy, her form seemed to glow with a silver light as the moon came out from behind the clouds.

"I am Artemis, Perseus Jackson. Goddess of the moon and the hunt."


End file.
